It is not certain when we will see the transition from Core i7 2677M to Core i7 3667U in the 17W dual-core notebook market.

Core i7 2677M is Sandy Bridge based and has 4MB cache, a 1.8GHz base clock and can turbo-clock all the way to 2.9GHz. The replacement is still scheduled for Q2 2012 and the new Ivy Bridge 22nm based CPU to take the crown in this market is Core i7 3667U. It is a 2GHz processor with two cores and four threads, with HD 4000 graphics, 4MB cache and 17W TDP. This time the top turbo speed is 3.2GHz which means we can expect this new 17W king of the hill to make quite a difference.

Most roadmaps are indicating that Core i7 3667U launches in May but we think that Computex 2012, taking place in Taiwan on June 5th, might be the right place to launch this new generation of ultra-low voltage processors for Ultrabooks and long battery life lovers.

The replacement, or a faster version of Core i7 3667U is planned for Q4 2012 at the earliest, but this is something that Intel can decide depending on the sales of the Core i7 3667U 2GHz with 3.2GHz turbo clock part.

This processor and its potential predecessor have to rule the Ultrabook market at least until new architecture codenamed Haswell makes an appearance in Q2 2013, roughly a year from now.